To ‘soften’ Noida’s hard water, more Ganga water in the pipeline

Noida Authority is planning to supply an additional 192 million litres per day (MLD) of Ganga water in 124 sectors from August 15, a measure aimed at providing relief to thousands of residents who now make do with groundwater, which is hard.

The step is part of trial runs of Phase-II of the Ganga Water Scheme.

“The trial run will continue for a month during which we will test a network of 100km-long pipelines that has been laid to supply the water from Ganga to various reservoirs across the city. Currently, Noida residents are supplied with 48 MLD of Ganga water, which is then mixed with groundwater to dilute its hardness and also to fulfill the city’s daily needs of around 215 MLD. This arrangement was part of Phase-I of the scheme, which has been in effect since 2005. With Phase-II, we are hoping to minimise the use of hard groundwater across Noida,” an official said.

According to officials, Ganga water will be tapped at Masuri village in Ghaziabad and then transported to a plant 17 km away. After that, it will be transported to various treatment plants before being piped to reservoirs across the city.

“Phase-I of the scheme cost around Rs 120 crore. Phase-II will cost around Rs 520 crore. Under Phase-III, which will cost around Rs 250 crore, an additional 90 MLD of Ganga water will be supplied to residents,” an official said.

By 2021, the daily need for water in Noida will be about 590 MLD, of which around 425 MLD of Ganga water will be required so that the water quality is suitable for use.

“Currently, there is no shortage of water in Noida. But its quality is poor, which is why this scheme was launched. Since we don’t want to run out of groundwater because of excessive usage and want our our children to drink sweet water, we are doing what we can,” he said.